Say Goodbye to the Screen

With the motherboard itself pulled apart and inventoried, we turned to the multi-touch screen:


Will it ever work again? The picture below has this part flipped over as the first stage of dissection

Below is a depiction of the stages of dissection:

The leftmost picture is the LCD and layer immediately behind it, followed by the middle two layers and then the final piece of the screen assembly.


From left to right, the parts of the screen starting with the piece closest to the user and moving further away

Here's a closer look at the backside of the iPhone's outer screen layer:

A closer look at the middle layers of the iPhone screen setup:

The final piece, the one closest to the motherboard, has a faint pattern of dots laid out in a grid which you can sort of see in the picture below:

The grid continues down the entire panel, once again necessary for the multi-touch screen.

The iPhone's Motherboard(s) The Aftermath
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  • p1agu3 - Wednesday, August 5, 2009 - link

    The reason I know anandtech is one of my favorites on the web:

    It's 2009. I see a news article: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=15880">http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=15880

    I began wondering about the internals of an iPhone, as it had dawned on me that I'd never actually seen their guts before. So I immediately googled (to the right of my address bar...in Firefox) "iphone internals" and clicked on the first result. It brought me here...back to Anandtech again. Good job, guys and gals, and especially Anand: your hard work in consistent journalism is paying off. Thank you! :)
  • p1agu3 - Wednesday, August 5, 2009 - link

    My bad, I neglected to mention I saw said news article from its mention in an anandtech article. whoops, haha. anyways, hopefully now that makes sense.
  • alora222 - Monday, February 2, 2009 - link

    Try the TripChill iPhone travel assistant the next time you travel. Get real-time flight alerts, book hotel and car, view alternate flights, notify friends of travel status, manage your itinerary, and much more.
    ==========
    alora

    http://www.tripchill.com">http://www.tripchill.com
  • mikeepu - Friday, July 13, 2007 - link

    Just a little FYI on iPhone Batteries
    From Jason Snell's Article "The truth about iPhone battery lifespan":


    "A true statement, as far as it goes. Batteries die. But many media reports this week have gone further. Take, for example, CNET’s review of the iPhone, which states that “Apple is estimating one battery will last for 400 charges — probably about two years’ worth of use.”


    Two years of use, the review says, and your iPhone dies. Or disappears in a puff of smoke, like those old tape recordings on “Mission Impossible.” Sounds pretty awful, right?


    Too bad it’s completely wrong.


    Apple estimates that the iPhone will lose 20 percent of its capacity — a darn sight less than 100 percent — “after 400 full charge and discharge cycles.”


    “Sadly, there are some inaccurate reports out there,” Apple marketing vice president Greg Joswiak told me today during a brief phone call from New York City. Joswiak isn’t quite sure where the story went off the rails — David Pogue’s initial New York Times review of the iPhone mentioned the battery issue, but Pogue got it right: “Apple says that the battery starts to lose capacity after 300 or 400 charges.”


    Somehow, though, things got lost in translation. And follow-on reports started claiming that 300 to 400 charges would be the end of the line.


    “After 400 complete cycles, the iPhone’s battery still has 80 percent of its charged capacity,” Joswiak said. “And by a complete charge cycle, I mean completely draining the battery, a full chemical cycle.” In other words, using a little battery and then putting your iPhone back in its dock doesn’t count as a charge cycle. If you use a quarter of your iPhone’s battery and then re-charge it, Joswiak said, that’s the equivalent of a quarter of a charge cycle.


    “If you top it off, you’re not wasting a charge cycle,” Joswiak said."


    http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macword/2007/07/ip...">The Truth about iPhone Battery Lifespan
  • CptanPanic - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link

    Has anyone seen a dissection of the dock? I want to see if there is any electronics in there. There is supposed to be some sort of authentication chip to tell iphone that dock is iphone compatable.

  • Roy2001 - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    So, are you able to put all parts back and make it work again?
  • Xenoterranos - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    I can think of 4 things you didn't do in this tear down, and all of them involve the battery...
  • gregor7777 - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    Wow, the non-user changeable battery is a real problem methinks.

    Apple is set to make a lot of money on that deal. The customer has to go without their phone for an unspecified period of time, foot a relatively hefty bill and then probably repeat the process a year later.

    Model 2 has a user replaceable battery? Let's hope so.
  • EODetroit - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    I remember when it was a one-man show. Now just hope for a blog update... maybe an update on the value of the iPhone next?
  • Googer - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    Engadget has confirmed the iPhone's processor.
    http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/01/iphone-processo...">http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/01/iphone-processo...


    http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM1176.html">http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM1176.html

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